Status:
Online
Client:
NASA/HDC
Established:
2025
URL:
Location:
TG, HN
Project Scope:
Website Dev & Design, Project Presentation, Simulator, Storytelling.
Alvaro Morales
- Residence:Honduras
- City:San Pedro Sula
- Gender:Male
- Age:29
- Spanish:Native
- Englsih:C2 Proficient
- German:B2
- French:A1
NASA: Meteor Madness
Brochure Sites, Featured, Hackathon, Landing Pages, Website
Project Overview
2025 NASA Space Apps Challenge
On October 4-5, 2025 hackathon participants came together to "Learn, Launch, Lead" as they worked alongside a vibrant community of scientists, technologists, and storytellers at 551 Local Events worldwide. Participants learned skills to succeed in STEM fields, launched ideas that transform NASA’s open data into actionable tools, and lead their communities in driving technological innovation.
Challenge & Goal
The Challenge
A newly identified near-Earth asteroid, "Impactor-2025," poses a potential threat to Earth, but do we have the tools to enable the public and decision makers to understand and mitigate its risks? NASA datasets include information about known asteroids and the United States Geological Survey provides critical information that could enable modeling the effects of asteroid impacts, but this data needs to be integrated to enable effective visualization and decision making. Your challenge is to develop an interactive visualization and simulation tool that uses real data to help users model asteroid impact scenarios, predict consequences, and evaluate potential mitigation strategies. (Planetary Science Division)
The Goal
In a world where space exploration pushes the boundaries of human knowledge, understanding celestial threats like meteors has become essential. Welcome to Meteor Madness, home of the Meteor Impact Simulator, an interactive tool that visualizes what would happen if a real meteor collided with Earth. Our project combines NASA open data, scientific modeling, and visual simulation to raise awareness about planetary defense and empower the next generation of space thinkers.
Project Details
What exactly does the Meteor Impact Simulator do?
The simulator is an interactive 2D web application that recreates the potential impact of an asteroid on Earth. It allows users to explore how asteroids behave when they collide with different regions of the planet. With just a few clicks, anyone can select a location, choose an asteroid such as Apophis or Bennu, and visualize the potential effects of impact:
• The impact location on a real map.
• The radius of destruction and damage zones.
• The energy released during impact.
• Population and environmental effects of the impact zone.
This tool serves both as an educational experience for the public and an analytical environment for researchers who wish to form hypotheses or study impact patterns. The interface is designed to spark curiosity, inviting users to learn through simulation while understanding the real science behind planetary defense.
How does Meteor Impact work?
The simulator brings the science of asteroid impacts to life through a clear and engaging 2D interactive experience. The simulator operates through an intuitive web-based interface built to make complex space data accessible to everyone.
From the demo interface, users can:
• Select a region anywhere on Earth using an interactive map.
• Choose an asteroid from the database (real NASA-recorded objects).
• Run a simulation that calculates and displays:
- The asteroid’s trajectory and entry angle
- The impact zone and damage radius
- The estimated energy released upon collision
Behind the scenes, the simulation uses NASA’s Near-Earth Object data, applying mathematical models to estimate the force and area of impact. The visualization engine, built with React.js and p5.js, transforms scientific data into a clear and captivating display making the invisible dynamics of space visible to everyone.
What does Meteor Impact hope to achieve?
Our mission is twofold: to educate and to empower. We want to make space science approachable to the general public while offering a practical, data-driven resource for planetary defense research. By combining accessible design with scientific depth, Meteor Impact encourages users to explore, question, and understand the mechanics of asteroid impacts.
For educators and enthusiasts, it’s a tool that inspires curiosity. For researchers, it’s a potential platform for analyzing asteroid behavior, testing hypotheses, and visualizing impact data interactively. Ultimately, Meteor Impact aims to bridge the gap between science and public awareness, fostering a new generation of learners and innovators who are both informed and inspired by the cosmos.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Open AI to enhance workflow and ideas.
Google Gemini for image and content generation.
NASA Data
Repository
Tools to develop Meteor Impact Simulator
Core Technologies & Languages
Primary Framework & Runtime:
• Next.js 15 - React framework with Turbopack bundler
• React 19 - UI library
• TypeScript 5 - Type-safe JavaScript
3D Graphics & Visualization:
• Three.js - 3D graphics library
• @react-three/fiber - React renderer for Three.js
• @react-three/drei - Useful helpers for React Three Fiber
• GSAP - Animation library for smooth transitions
Maps & Location:
• Google Maps API - Geographic visualization
• @vis.gl/react-google-maps - React wrapper for Google Maps
Future Goals
The next step for impactor 2025 simulator is to evolve from 2D to a fully interactive 3D simulator. Providing a bigger picture and ample information on other variables that also collaborate on the possibility of a meteor hitting the earth like other planet’s orbits. Demonstrating the bigger picture of the impact of what happens before and after it lands on earth, what are the major factors that could attract it and even evolve to a tool to provide important data for empowering communities and researchers. Expanding the knowledge of what lies beyond our skies.
Screens & Layouts
Kevin
Owner
“I finally feel like our website works as hard as our kitchen.”
